Paper dispensers are in wide use in the industry. One example of such use is the dispensing of tickets, which may be for example receipts for a purchase from a vending machine or tickets that are used to gain access to an event or to a transportation system. In some instances, it is known to dispense individual tickets using a system that has a roll of paper and feeds the paper from the roll past a printing element and past a dispensing slot or an outlet of some sort of cutting element so that the amount of paper sticking out of the slot or outlet is available to the user so the user, and can grab the extended paper with his or her hand and remove it.
In some instances, the piece of paper from the roll that is extending out of the dispenser slot will be cut by an automatic blade arrangement that is between the feed rollers and the dispensing slot, and some form of frictional resistance such as an additional set of rollers will provide a small amount of friction to hold the paper in place extending out of the slot until the frictional resistance is overcome by the user pulling the paper out of the slot. In other known devices, the piece of paper extending out of the slot will still be attached to the roll and some form of manual cutter such as a serrated blade edge is present near the slot and when the user removes the piece of paper, the user is pulling the paper against the serrated blade which will tear off the paper at the blade location.
Various types of roll paper are in use in such known commercial paper ticket dispensers. The paper may be plain paper which is printed on by inks by a dot matrix or ink jet printer, or in some instances may be thermal paper which is printed on by a heat-applying print head.
A disadvantage of the above described systems is that in either instance, the paper often tends to curl up as it extends out to the dispensing slot. The paper curl problem can usually to be due to one or more of several factors. First, the paper is initially being dispensed from a roll, and hence tends to have some degree of curl present from the time spent on the roll. This curl problem tends to be most severe with paper towards the end of the roll, which is mst tightly wound around the core. Further, the pressure or heat applied by the print head onto one side of the paper while not on the other side of the paper can also tend to cause the paper to curl, and in many instances, both of these curling effects operate in the same direction on the paper thus reinforcing the curl.
As a result of these curling tendencies, paper which is simply ejected through a rectangular slot will often tend to curl back towards the slot to some degree. This can be undesirable for several reasons. Severe roll-curling can cause the paper to miss the dispensing slot. In some examples, this level of problem can begin to occur when the roll is used down to ⅓ of its diameter. Also, when the user removes the piece of paper, the user is left with a curled piece, which may be asthetically unappealing and also not convenient to carry in a pocket or fold. Further, the curled paper may tend to curl vertically upwards for example and hug the front housing of the dispensing device, making it somewhat more difficult to grasp for removal than if it were sticking roughly straight out from the dispensing device. Finally, the curled paper while curled in one direction is substantially flat in the other direction. As a result, the paper may be susceptible to flopping in the wind, or in the case of strong winds even being blown out of the dispenser before the user has a chance to remove it.
The curling problem can also be more severe in the case of thermal printed paper. The coated side of the paper may tend to curl when printed, further reinforcing the curl.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a paper guide that can overcome the above curled paper disadvantages at least to some extent.